Guild Wars 2

The dodge animations look really ugly IMO besides the condi dodge. Idk, just personal preference I guess. I’m having a hard time trying to figure out what builds I want to try out during BWE. Condi thief looks like it’s going to be a bunch of fun with the new dagger utility and dodge. S/d with Staff offhand maybe for power oriented builds. I wonder how traditional stealth abuse d/p and d/d builds could benefit from DD traitline.

Daendur.2357:

I think our new mechanic is the dodge change.
No other class can change the dodge ability.
And honestly it’s awesome.

Ok yeah that makes way more sense. Guess I was overlooking something.

First off let me state I’m by no means complaining and I’m very excited for the new spec. I’m a little confused though, as all the other classes are getting a mechanic change for their f1 skills. Berserker gets shorter adrenaline bar and different variations of f1 skills, chrominancer gets a new f1 skill all together, reaper replaces deathshroud, so on and so forth. So our mechanic change is adding a dodge bar? Am I missing something??? Kind of lame that this was a trait before and we are just getting it back as our mechanic change, but I’m excited to have it back none the less.

Can I prepurchase now and get access to the beta? I was on the fence about pre purchasing cause I wanted to see what the deal was for thief, but now I’m pretty confident in getting it.

The V.8759:

TBH every build has its weakness. In this chase your weakness are those engineers. However a sword/dagger thief could beat that engineer much more easily. Thats called balance

True I agree with balance, but at the same time I believe in outplay potential. If you’re substantially better than your enemy, then you deserve to win regardless of counters. I don’t come here to play rock paper scissors, I want to outplay my opponent and crush him. There’s been some good suggestions but I think you’re totally right that I alone can’t take on the enemy unless he just doesn’t know how to play the build he’s running.

MarauderShields.6830:

Love this build. It is so incredibly cheesy, you can even beat the cheese of mesmers and D/D eles.

It really throws people off I’ve noticed. Mesmer try to outstealth me and I laugh and permastealth with traps. Eles try to load me with condis and I laugh and knock them down with traps.

Rym.1469:

Windwalker Thief

Yasuo? I wouldn’t mind a yasuo shoulderpiece

I second the notion of replacing sb with staff. probably what I will end up doing on my main thief (not the trap thief). That elite and impairing dagger though…. my god <3

Thief
Trappers Respite: Fixed a bug that prevented this trait from being affected by the recharge reduction provided by the trait Deadly Trapper.

In the patch notes today. Got a small buff! definitely happy on that. Also pretty excited for some of the new traits the Daredevil spec could provide to this build! Thanks A-net!

GrandHaven.1052:

hey reinforce! This time i can help you!

Engi main, the trait is on a ~21 second CD.
I find that when a thief needlessly invisses while still early in the fight, applies poison to me and then disengages for the reveal duration, I struggle!
The reason this works is engi’s have tons of AOE and its hard to “pull your punches” vs a thief because you tend to panic a bit.

That should buy you a good 15 seconds to deal dmg for freezies!

Got it, so pull out while revealed and let my poison do it’s dirty work. Is it uncommon for engi to have analyze slotted as well?

Slowmelt.8547:

reinforever.8902:

I could spam blinding shot all day on them

Not really.
You can only keep that up for a very short period of time. Initiative management being what it is, it just isn’t going to work for any length of time, and then you get piles of Burning stacks that melt you to death.

Well yeah that too, lmfao. Point being, I am sad face.

Arlowslol.1974:

learn to play with your blind and interrupt, spamming stealth is the mindnesss playstyle in this game.you can faceroll other build without your brain doesnt mean you are a well play thief

I could spam blinding shot all day on them and they still will apply a boat load of condis onto me. I suppose I could try to interrupt a few of their moves, but again boat load of condis. Stealth spam is not mindless at all, requires positioning and timing, plus our only viable traitline for defense is completely revolved around stealth. Like I said, I understand having a reveal move, but utility goggles (analyze) AND lock on together is stupid broken. Completely counters 2 weapon sets, and an entire traitline. They shouldn’t be able to have both, one or the other.

Famine.7915:

Last we tested. Engineer lock on trait applies reveal to thieves but does not strip stealth. It does strip stealth on mesmers so this is a bug. For the time being, make sure you know roughly how much time before lock on is off CD and when you get hit in stealth, don’t attack and just wait out the reveal. I haven’t seen any patch notes addressing this issue so it should still work for now. Let me know if they patched it.

Not true, maybe it is hit or miss. But earlier I got ripped out of stealth from it.

Slowmelt.8547:

As far as I can tell, you simply… do not.
They have a wide AOE spray attack that reveals. There is not really a counter to that except, maybe, an offhand pistol for a headshot… but that will only work for a few seconds, and almost certainly precludes a backstab-type build being used.
You could of course go for a stealthless burst Thief… but then your lack of defenses or health pool will surely get you killed by Warriors, Guardians, Rangers that focus on burst damage, Elementalists using Fire, Mesmers that you can’t catch because Ricochet is dead, and Engineers with turrets because you get melted before you can get close.
Ah, and stealthless Thief builds are essentially prey for Stealth Thieves.

We might be able to fight Revenents if we get to them before they are finished, however.

I thought as much. Pretty lame that one trait can destroy an entire spec line and a few weaponset mechanics. Pretty OP pls nerf. Analyze is enough reveal for the engi, they don’t need more.

I play the stealth spam d/p trapper backstab build so I rely on stealth for my dmg, my sustain, and condi clear. I can usually deal with the ranger sic em by evades and LOS. But I just can’t figure out how to deal with Engi reveal trait. Do I just avoid fighting them and IF I do engage on an engi, hope for the best? I just don’t know how any of the stealth spec thieves are supposed to win in this kind of fight.

Guild pillar is and always will be my favorite melee staff rendition. The chain hanging off is just too sexy to pass up. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Guild_Pillar.jpg

GrandHaven.1052:

I definitely am, although I would like to master the metabuild first before experimenting.

That’s a good plan. The metabuild has an extremely well-done compound of information to new thieves. My actual build plays very similar to the metabuild does with some tweaks.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Backstab-Trapper-Roaming/first my first forum post with the 1st montage video.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Trapper-Backstab-Thief-part-2/first#post5409058 second forum post with 2nd montage video.

I give a link to my build in the description of the videos, BUT I don’t really go into detail on how the spec works too much so feel free to message/mail me in game and I’ll be happy to help you with specifics on my build.

Kocoff.7582:

Same situation here. I am fully ready to buy Deluxe edition, but if they don’t announce any trait repairs, rebalance patches, and reveal a sex daredevil; I am affraid I might just stop playing, take a long break of several months… Other classes are not as appealing as the thief.

I’m pretty much waiting for thief reveal to determine my purchase of HoT. If thief gets killed I probably won’t be playing this game until they make it viable (assuming it gets rekt by anet). There’s more than enough player feedback and info on the last 2 pages of forums that I’ll refrain from making a wall of text. Anet has all the resources to make thief fun and enjoyable for HoT, I just hope they utilize it.

Well for dagger offhand users https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRASCa__fE8 pretty good tips and tricks vid for that.

Yishis is an inspiration to most thieves that have been around for a while. He has good commentary and explains most of what he does pretty well. Although, the builds he uses are pretty outdated as the videos are pretty old. Take with a grain of salt and appreciate some of the tactics pointers he gives.

decent info here

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Thief_-_Dagger/Pistol good read for mechanics tips.
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Thief_-_D/P_Roamer_ same build as above, but for wvw instead of pvp.

I have a pretty unique wvw build using traps and dagger/pistol as a weaponset if you’re interested in learning about that.

Asahi.1487:

http://imgur.com/lVf5wMp

WvW is so easy

Uplvl or no? Jesus christ.

GrandHaven.1052:

At a point where I need someone to listen to on Youtube or even read some tips.

Suggestions?

Depends on your weapon set and preferred game type. Wvw, pvp, or Pve?

reinforever.8902:

Puck.9612:

Jayne.9251:

I thought the new thing for rangers and thieves was trapper runes?

Pretty mediocre now since you can’t throw traps. It used to be when you had a zerg chasing you you could throw a trap out of the way to keep from being revealed, now they just mow you down since the stealth is too short to lose them. Still works okay for trolling small groups.

Hello, I recently brought traps to the thief forums as a new build that could perform with other meta builds. In short it’s a trapper thief that Is power/backstab based. Received a lot of positive feedback on the two video posts. Here’s a link to the second one https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Trapper-Backstab-Thief-part-2/first#post5409058

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Backstab-Trapper-Roaming/first original post for credibility reasons.

Puck.9612:

Jayne.9251:

I thought the new thing for rangers and thieves was trapper runes?

Pretty mediocre now since you can’t throw traps. It used to be when you had a zerg chasing you you could throw a trap out of the way to keep from being revealed, now they just mow you down since the stealth is too short to lose them. Still works okay for trolling small groups.

Hello, I recently brought traps to the thief forums as a new build that could perform with other meta builds. In short it’s a trapper thief that Is power/backstab based. Received a lot of positive feedback on the two video posts. Here’s a link to the second one https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Trapper-Backstab-Thief-part-2/first#post5409058

SolarDragon.7063:

reinforever.8902:

SolarDragon.7063:

That’s not quite true. The problem with shadow trap is that it calculates the range based on WALKING distance, not straight line.
If you activate from a point technically in straight line range but not in walk range, it goofs up into obstacles.

Regardless how it calculates, you still have to have a clear path.

No you don’t. You have to have a walkable path of less than 10000 units.

Misunderstood you, see above post.

SolarDragon.7063:

That’s not quite true. The problem with shadow trap is that it calculates the range based on WALKING distance, not straight line.
If you activate from a point technically in straight line range but not in walk range, it goofs up into obstacles.

Oh I see what you’re saying. I was testing it based on range. That makes a lot more sense.

So I did some more testing with Shadow trap as far as range and teleporting to the target. You can go pretty freakin’ far with the trap and teleport back. In fact the distance you can teleport using shadow trap gives me a very small loadscreen, pretty crazy! The downside is you have to have a clear path between either you and the trap or you and the target that triggered the trap. If not two different things happen depending on the circumstances
If nothing triggered the trap and you’re breaking trap to return to that point, you will get caught on ANYTHING that is between you and the shadow trap. Trees, small hills, stumps.
If something did trigger the trap and there’s something blocking between you and target (same blockages as above), you will get the stealth and might, but you simply wont teleport to the target at all.

So really the trap is only truly good for escapes if you position it just right so that there aren’t any obstacles between you and it, or if there’s no obstacles between you and your target. In my opinion shadowstep would be a better escape option simply because it’s a stunbreak and has some decent range. The in combat benefits are just too particular to accomplish to make shadow trap a skill worth it to take over its counterparts. With that said, I’m going to continue to run with ambush trap because that’s how I’m having the best luck with this build in particular. Happy hunting my fellow trappers.

YOUNGaz.5690:

While ‘Reveal’ is becoming easier to access for multiple classes, at this time it’s still is a specific skill or trait they have to take in order to do so. I don’t think a ton of players are spec’ing for Reveal abilities at the moment and to be reasonably honest, I think it’s only fair to give some form of reveal skills to other classes.

The NEW reveal skills are a bit worrying. The dragonhunter one is a little insane. I really hope they don’t keep adding reveal effects rolled into big damage skills like that for a lot of classes. More subtle ones like the Shiro one I can deal with.

I think most the thief community feels a little beat up and tired at the moment and it doesn’t help they’re saving our elite spec for the end and we still don’t even have a confirmed weapon yet. If indeed our spec doesn’t help us out at all, or they feel the need to not help us out in our other trait lines, it’s going to be a sad.

The engineer trait is a little strong. I think sic em was a more balanced approach. Sic em you had to
1. use a valuable utility slot
2. had a 40 second cooldown, so It was not so spammable
3. had to at least kind of skillfully time it so that you could get a thief while they were out of stealth
The engi trait Doesn’t need to worry about any of this
1. takes up a trait slot
2. 25 second cooldown
3. Just hit a thief with anything while they are stealthed and the trait comes into effect.

Please balance anet, either give us something to counter this, or nerf the existing problems.

NinjaEd.3946:

I think the worst reveal skill, is actually the trait from engineer that applies it if you hit them while they are stealthed!

Put on a flame thrower and go hunting, no stealth class can escape you.

I recently was doing some duels and I stumbled across an engi that had this trait. I tried everything I possibly could to actually be able to beat him, but it was purely impossible. It’s kind of ridiculous that one single trait can counter an ENTIRE build. This doesn’t make sense from a balance standpoint, especially because one of our main and only condi clears is based on being in stealth. My hopes are that we get caithe elite and can stealth 5 evr with no reveal. Incoming Q.Q.’

No but seriously, maybe anet has plans for a move that removes revealed debuff (one time). Or like others stated, giving us our evasive thieves back.

babazhook.6805:

reinforever.8902:

Kocoff.7582:

oooooleeeeee. This is great. To be honest I thought it would take you a little longer than that.

- the fight at NWcamp vs mesmer, necro, guardian. it’s gold. that NPC Supervisor made me lol.
- that engi right after…. exemplify how annoying those guys can be.

this build is really nice, but the risk of being stunlocked is crazy haha. I guess that’s the risk I am willing to take. Good job mate!

Most of my fights usually go like this so it’s really easy to get some footage. I’m working purely on outnumbered now. Stunlock is the builds number one counter, but that said we can usually take the damage and stealth spam up, however I’m looking into a more efficient method. I’ve been trying shadow trap and I just can’t get it to work as a stun break, need something instant cast all the time. There’s a trait in acro line, but it’s really hard for me to give up any lines. Maybe infil signet instead of ambush trap. Idk, I’ll continue working.

It pretty hard to get shadow trap to work as a stun break. In a power build stun is a huge issue with the trapper. It a little easier using trappers in a condi build as you can take the acro line and get hard to catch.

I ended up using RFI has there a bit more utility then the signet in that you can get a second way to counter immob/cripple/chill and garner that initiative which in game terms is the same as the signet gets you.

With RFI you also will find it easier to change up your heal to HiS.

The choices, if I were to even change ambush trap to something with stun break, were shadowstep, infil signet, and RFI. RFI and shadowstep have much more appealing utility over all but sport a much higher cooldown. Infil signet however is only on a 30 second cast time which can be reduced from the other trait in CS. If i was taking Trickery over CS, i would most likely go with RFI and take the trick cd reduce that way my heal would be even more consistent, and gives a lot of extra condi clear. But still, it’s hard for me to give up my npc thief T~T

Magira.6390:

Traveller or Trapper is the Question.^^

I am #traplord and I approve this message.

Kocoff.7582:

oooooleeeeee. This is great. To be honest I thought it would take you a little longer than that.

- the fight at NWcamp vs mesmer, necro, guardian. it’s gold. that NPC Supervisor made me lol.
- that engi right after…. exemplify how annoying those guys can be.

this build is really nice, but the risk of being stunlocked is crazy haha. I guess that’s the risk I am willing to take. Good job mate!

Most of my fights usually go like this so it’s really easy to get some footage. I’m working purely on outnumbered now. Stunlock is the builds number one counter, but that said we can usually take the damage and stealth spam up, however I’m looking into a more efficient method. I’ve been trying shadow trap and I just can’t get it to work as a stun break, need something instant cast all the time. There’s a trait in acro line, but it’s really hard for me to give up any lines. Maybe infil signet instead of ambush trap. Idk, I’ll continue working.

Amante.8109:

I really want to try these trap shenanigans! Guess I need to level Leatherworker?

Any of the armor crafting professions at lvl 400 will work. But yeah leatherworking is good to go with thief

CrossHeart.9145:

Last night was the most fun I had on my thief since last year. The build you shared actually gave me the highest damage output on my thief with 25 stacks of might and 15 stacks of vulnerability (plus 100% crit chance from stealth). I finally felt strong and, not to mention, useful in WvW with this.

I do have to ask though, are you just relying on the condi removal from stealth? Wouldn’t it be safer to have Hide in Shadows as a heal or do you find the stealth from it redundant?

I do rely on the shadows embrace for condi removal, but the cool thing about this trait is that it goes straight to damage condis for removal. The problem with this is that immobilize, chill, and cripple don’t get cleared, so that’s why I take withdraw. Withdraw also has a higher heal to cooldown ratio so I get more hp in a less ammount of time, instant cast, a built in evade, and with the trapper runes and trait it also applies stealth. These are the main reasons I pick withdraw over Hide in Shadows.

Dis Wiz Raps.7240:

godmoney.6025:

The problem is, I like using Sigil of fire to detect other stealthed classes. Like auto attacking and proccing fire burst on a thief inside his shadow refuge.

Can Sigil of Air procs also be seen when proc’d against a stealthed character? I’ve personally never noticed it, only the AOE fire sigil burst.

You do know that when you hit someone in stealth with an auto attack, your auto attack will go though the auto attack chain. So you cans till see if you hit them…

Yeah but the fire burst give you more of an accurate location.

Overworld.9613:

I didn’t get to watch it all the way through (but I will come back to do just that) but I like what I see, this looks like a really fun build

Hey thanks bud. If you end up trying it out, let me know how it goes.

reinforever.8902:

Kocoff.7582:

I want to see a lof of mesmer blood, D/D ele blood, Guardian blood.

Just a lot of blood and crits, sexy dodges, good epic music and outnumbered sexyness.

We all have this duty to instill fear and QQ to other professions. You have done it once with this post, you will surely do it again.

Requests heard loud and clear my friend

So I just posted a trapper build showcase montage a few days ago, but I was a little unhappy with the content being mainly duels and mainly against warriors. So I made a part two that focuses more on roaming and the pesky classes thief has grown to hate. I’m sorry if this is too soon to post new content, but YOLO #TrapLife. As I promised to you kocof, here’s the second installment (instillment) to the trapper backstab thief. Next video will contain purely Outnumbered fights either solo or with a small group in the coming weeks.

Note: slight build changes, Changed armor head, chest, and legs to valkyrie (from berserker) and changed cleansing sigil from sb to bloodlust stacking sigil. Build link will be in description, as usual.

Enjoy

Serious Thought.5394:

It’s called the Trapper build. It’s rather powerful, but it requires you be fairly unobservant.

Below is an example.
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=Vh3RV;1RwVa0R5gOFd0;9;4IJM;0138247147;4nNk3L;1G3G3G3G35z

25 might stacks, 1/2 second action time, 15 stacks of vulnerability.

can confirm, trapper build stronk.

This is a pretty interesting build! I like it would definitely like to see some gameplay.

Kocoff.7582:

I want to see a lof of mesmer blood, D/D ele blood, Guardian blood.

Just a lot of blood and crits, sexy dodges, good epic music and outnumbered sexyness.

We all have this duty to instill fear and QQ to other professions. You have done it once with this post, you will surely do it again.

Requests heard loud and clear my friend

I am in the process of getting more footage for a second video more focused on roaming and outnumbered fights. Are there any requests? Should I go over some tips and tricks in the video, or should I stick to pure montage?

SoulSin.5682:

Tip for those with shadow trap.

You can use Steal + Shadow Trap.

Grants you stealth for the first backstab at the same time that you has a 2 seconds wndow to active stealth a second time after reveal. With might stacks.

Naturally, Shadow trap is a disavantage in a long fight. But the point here is to not have a long fight.

Can they be used simultaneously, similar to CnD and steal. Sorry I’m at school currently and can’t get in game.

Edit: as far as your long fight comment goes, I find the build without shadow trap can excel at a long fight as the regen and might application is almost never ending because the traps are on such a low CD and you have access to stealth through ini even if the traps ARE on CD.

babazhook.6805:

For map mobility if one has 3 traps traited you can get around pretty quickly just laying down traps as you run.

The runes also work pretty good for the p/p users who are lacking defenses and access to stealth. They provide a very much needed loss of target loss to the enemy, and allow you to relocate and use the sneak attack from hiding as your ini builds. You can then use heal to stealth in your p/p build, use vital shot at range from hiding and than get an unload or two off before setting another trap.

Vital shot from hiding hits pretty hard. For those p/p power sets if one uses the might on crit food along sith a sigil of strength , you can easily build over 20 might coupled with the trap trait

I note the OP uses Omnomberry which an excellent choice but the dumplings can be considered as well. You add 20 percent to boons (thus your might) and it gets might on crit with no cooldown.

The overall power generated by such a build will be over 3000 with regularity , more than enough to make up for the loss of power on runes themself. I have long maintained these one of the best runes out there as the stealth available via the trap along with the function of the trap itself really saves us INI allowing the INI to be used for our attacks.

Oh and to the “flow” of the shadowtrap itself. I understand the concerns some have in getting this to work in combat without interrupting said flow. I still found they well worth it. It takes time but after a while you can predict where people will run in battle so It usually not a problem getting it to trigger. That said what I tend to do is use one of the other traps to stealth (or stealth via other means) and then immediately lay this trap on top of the enemy. It instantly triggers and then you got plenty of time to use pursuit to get to where you are and setup your attack.

Heal forward is also a very nice tactic if you can get good at it using withdraw. Withdraw into the enemy and instantly stealth , launch your backstab. No INI used.

I just wish we had an elite as a trap. I was hoping thieves guild would be made one.

I was thinking about running p/p next to see how it went, thanks for the suggestion! I prefer omnom berry because After some maths it ends up having higher dps than striaghtforward power food and it also give some sustain from the crits stealing some hp.

As far as shadow trap, I agree with you that with practice it’s definitely strong and viable. I like the idea of laying the trap right on them to auto trigger it, I’ll try and get into the habbit of that in general rather than kiting them through traps.

Withdraw forward is such a useful tactic, I unfortunately have a very difficult time mastering it, and I manually rotate the camera to try and emulate the withdraw forward. Not the best, but it works. An elite as a trap would be icing on the cake for this build, another great suggestion.

Lambo.1405:

Hey, thanks for posting this. I read this thread earlier today when I was at work and I was itching to get home and give it a try. I’ve been at it for a couple hours now and I’m having a lot of fun with it. I’m not very good at it but then again I’m not a very good thief in general even though its all I play. I’m going to keep at it and maybe with some practice I’ll get a better hang of it. I think part of my problem is that I’m not used to d/p and all the utilities are different then what i’m used to so I’m trying to break old habits as I learn it. All in all, it’s fun and its a change of pace for me. I think I may stick with this a while but as someone else mentioned I wonder if perhaps I should trade CS trait line for Trickery. Either way, thanks for the share.

Yeah just keep at it, you break the habits pretty fast, and the muscle memory kind of kicks in. you treat 7-9 all the same anyways, basically an “ohkitten” move to get stealth and speed. Trading CS for trick works, reduces dps quite a bit because you lose a dmg multiplier in the minor traits. Still viable though.

godmoney.6025:

I tried running power trapper months before the big June patch and found it lackluster. But now you piqued my interest and I tried it again last night. The two new DA trapper traits really made this build much better. I run ShadowStep and 2 other traps.

I really wish ANet would implement internal cooldown timers on the UI though, so we can see when the next trap on heal would be available. The difference in Withdraw cooldown and Trapper’s Respite cooldown makes it difficult to predict.

Then I’d love a bit more power/prec/fero based stats on the runes itself, at this time it’s heavily weighted towards condi builds. (Please don’t flame me condi thieves!)

Thanks for posting this!

The way I get around the heal trap cooldown is I know if I spam it twice, it will do the trap every other time for sure. I subconsciously track the time after heal comes off cooldown also If i’m planning on waiting for the trap to come up. Idk how to explain it, but I kind of just know if my heal will plant the trap or not. I agree on a power variation for the runes though, very much needed Anet!

Kocoff.7582:

I finally managed to log in. I had tried your build for about two hours. Man i loved it. I was so skeptical of trapper builds. I also tried it with Shadow Trap : Althought it is pretty OP, it does kind of mess up the whole flow of the fight. So you were right, the lower CD of the other traps are much more suitable for the build.

I replaced The Critical Strike Line with Trickery simply because I couldn’t cope with 30sec CD on Steal. I lost a good amount of crits though (I am at 40% crit without food or buff).
Instead I had Flanking Strikes From the Trickery line, which gives 6 seconds of Fury & Quickness. 15-20 sec Steal was more reliable gap closer to my taste.

Super Speed is also an excellent gap closer. This build is great. Thanks #TrapMasterFlex lol

I haven’t one-shoted anybody in a LONG kitten WHILE but this is what happens when they trigger all your traps:

I’m glad you were finally able to log in and try it, and I’m happy to hear you had a lot of success and fun with it I understand your logics behind replacing CS with Trickery as well, it’s a preference thing. I would rather have the damage modifier and 100% stealth crits, but trickery has it’s place definitely. Cool thing about trickery is if you take the trick reduction trait, you will most always clear all the condis off of you from withdraw. This works because withdraw removes chill, cripple, and immob, leaving the trickery trait to clear another condi and then your stealth for 3 seconds will also clear another 2 condis. Both very viable ways to play, It turns it into a more dmg vs utility thing so do whatever works best for you guys!

Edit: That necro tho x_x

reinforever.8902:

babazhook.6805:

Been using this for quite some time. Shadow trap works great here. You get that extra stealth as well when you trigger the trap. The target in for a world of hurt. The hardest part is the long cast time. I found casting from stealth works best.

If you are tratied SA you will get 6 seconds stealth when this triggers. Thats a couple of conditions cleansed right there with SE

swinsk.6410:

Pretty sure shadow trap is a stun break also after setting it. I’d go with it over the assassin trap. May give this a kitten on my power thief. It’s funny on condi thief…

Kocoff.7582:

I was pretty much just browsing the Trap skills cause it got me curious and made me realize How I NEVER used this Shadow trap. He is actually right. 10 stacks of might naturally and an 5 extra from the trait. kitten that could be a real killer. I take back all i said about how useless this skill is..

15 stakcs of might + 10 stacks of vulneralibility+ Fury+ Teleport RIGHT next to the guy for a BS+BREAK STUN +10,000 range …

dang. I take everything back. Anet forgive me. This can actually compete with Shadowstep.

Yeah, after taking a second look at the skill i’m going to run it tonight and see what kind of results I get. I think it will be a little difficult to get an enemy to kite through that specific trap (i’ll probably lose track of which one is which because I have 2-4 on the ground at all times). But It definitely adds to the burst. I don’t like that it makes me have less stealth though because that cd is sooooo long compared to other traps. Also +1 for it being a stunbreak, just takes some setting up.

Well I tried it for about an hour or so. It messes with the dmg rotation a little bit and stealth rotation unless you can get them to hit the trap, then it ends up working. The stun break is on such a long cast time unless they walk into the trap that it’s not worth using it as a stunbreak. When they do walk into the trap you have 10 seconds to shadowstep to them (and to use the insta stunbreak) Which I was disappointed by, I thought I would be able to shadowstep to them whenever I wanted after they walk through it. This wouldn’t be so bad either if it gave you a timer to use the skill in. Like a buff timer just like shadowstep has. All in all, I won’t personally use the trap, but If you find yourself preferring it over the npc thief then by all means take it as it could be viable in the right hands.

Faux.1937:

Raven.9603:

what are you using for speed in terms of getting around the map while roaming?

runes of the trapper = no speedy runes, traps = no signet of Run Forest Run…

SB……. its amazing fast, can also swap utilities to run, Dont need Trap just to get out there at 1st.

What I do to get around is I will go around the map in permastealth. I don’t ever leave stealth until I find a target I want to pick on, then I start setting up and engage. IF however I need to get somewhere fast, sb 5 and spamming all my trap EXCEPT the heal trap because it’s integral for escaping if I get engaged on. This lets me be about as fast as the other classes not including a 25% movespeed thief with sb.

Kocoff.7582:

I know I am being a little too geeky and keen on the detail here but bare with me because I am sure you will appreciate it too:

@ 2minutes 7 seconds, OP chased the downed Ele near the ennemy gate. At that point he proceeds to stomp. But the sexy things is, his assassin aid is behind, he uses Unload on the Ele.

The thing I wanted to point out was the as OP is Finishing the enemy, it looks like he is also dodging all of his aid’s bullets WHILE performing the move. That was awesome, and it goes by so smoothly.

No Friendly Fire just pure professional synergy.

I actually noticed this and one of the main reasons I included the clip at all! It’s not an amazing play or anything like that, just looked cool xD

babazhook.6805:

Been using this for quite some time. Shadow trap works great here. You get that extra stealth as well when you trigger the trap. The target in for a world of hurt. The hardest part is the long cast time. I found casting from stealth works best.

If you are tratied SA you will get 6 seconds stealth when this triggers. Thats a couple of conditions cleansed right there with SE

swinsk.6410:

Pretty sure shadow trap is a stun break also after setting it. I’d go with it over the assassin trap. May give this a kitten on my power thief. It’s funny on condi thief…

Kocoff.7582:

I was pretty much just browsing the Trap skills cause it got me curious and made me realize How I NEVER used this Shadow trap. He is actually right. 10 stacks of might naturally and an 5 extra from the trait. kitten that could be a real killer. I take back all i said about how useless this skill is..

15 stakcs of might + 10 stacks of vulneralibility+ Fury+ Teleport RIGHT next to the guy for a BS+BREAK STUN +10,000 range …

dang. I take everything back. Anet forgive me. This can actually compete with Shadowstep.

Yeah, after taking a second look at the skill i’m going to run it tonight and see what kind of results I get. I think it will be a little difficult to get an enemy to kite through that specific trap (i’ll probably lose track of which one is which because I have 2-4 on the ground at all times). But It definitely adds to the burst. I don’t like that it makes me have less stealth though because that cd is sooooo long compared to other traps. Also +1 for it being a stunbreak, just takes some setting up.

reddie.5861:

reinforever.8902:

Oslaf Beinir.5842:

I gotta give this a try with s/p

I hope lag wars is gonna be less laggy while I get me some gold for the set of armor

There’s another guy in one of my old guilds who uses it with s/p and he just spams pistol whip. Apparently it outdps’ d/p

nope 1 dodge and ur dead

I haven’t personally tried the build so I can’t speak for the s/p. Would need an experts opinion on it.

Sagat.3285:

It gives 10 on it’s own with some fury and stealth it’s also a break stun (kind off) it depends on your style I hate the cast time on return without a target though.

Oh that’s pretty cool then. They should fix the wiki on it, it doesn’t say the 10 might stacks anywhere or the fury. Good info though, thank you.

Edit: oh it’s on the wiki for shadow pursuit, I’m and idiot I guess. X.X

Magira.6390:

Kocoff.7582:

reinforever.8902:

Kocoff.7582:

I will definitely try this out. Hoping Trapper runes is not expensive…. probably is.

I’m excited to hear what your personal experience with them is.

IN THE MEANTIME I noticed this terrible terrible skill while checking your build:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shadow_Trap

I find no Shadow Trap in the build. But would not that bad. The skill generates 15 stacks Might. In PVP I use to always, is nothing better for mobility.

I think he was just referring to the skill as it is another trap I COULD have used for the build. It gives 15 stacks of might? I though it was 5 stacks per trap. I can see the use of it for mobility though. Almost like a solo Mesmer portal for emergencies. In wvw it’s near useless IMO.

Edit: like I said in another post, I would prefer the shorter cooldown trap for more access to stealth and super speed, and the thief npc provides decent dps and cc.